Past and present members of the Mattituck baseball program and residents in the district are expected to attend Thursday’s Board of Education meeting in support of Steve DeCaro, the varsity coach and high school physics teacher who was removed from the classroom last week for an undisclosed reason. READ

After nearly three years without a contract, the Mattituck Board of Education and Mattituck-Cutchogue Teachers Association have reached an agreement.

Approved unanimously Wednesday evening, the nine-year contract retroactively covers the 2014-15 school year and extends through June 2023, school board vice president Charles Anderson said.

“We’re very happy about it,” school board president Laura Jens-Smith said in a telephone interview prior to the meeting.

In the 2017-18 academic year, there will be a one percent increase on all frozen steps. Over the following three school years there will be both a one percent increase on all frozen steps and a 0.5 percent increase on all other steps.

All steps will receive a 0.5 percent increase in the final two years of the deal, according to Mr. Anderson.

Additionally, teachers agreed to contribute 1 percent more to health coverage for three consecutive years beginning in the 2018-19 school year, so by the end of 2021 they will contribute 18 percent, he said. They also agreed to switch dental insurance plans, saving the district money and putting teachers, administrators and CSEA employees all under the same plan.

One of the most beneficial parts of the new contract, however, isn’t financial, Mr. Anderson added.

“One thing we really like is teachers at the high school have agreed to be available for extra help four days a week,” he said. “It was difficult before to have only two days a week. Let’s say someone needed help in math and science and they were both on Monday night, they had to make a choice. Now that they have a choice of Monday or Wednesday, or however we set it up, they’ll be able to get help in every subject.”

He acknowledged the lengthy negotiation process, calling it “arduous and frustrating,” but commended the board and teacher’s union for respectfully working together.

“I think we came up with a solid contract that benefits everyone and I want to thank the MCTA and thank the rest of the board and I think it’ll be very good going forward,” Mr. Anderson said.

I rarely, if ever, weigh in publicly on these debates, but this one deserves a swift reply. The Suffolk Times could not be further from the truth on this. (Read our editorial here.)

First, in response to the request the evening of the election, I, as President of the Board of Education, stated that the list was very long and would not make sense to read aloud. The reason for this was the simple fact that by law you must record every single variation of a write-in vote, so while “John Doe” may have received twenty votes, “J. Doe” may have received six, and “Doe” may have received 10. No assumptions can be made that these are all the same people.

To read the separate entries aloud would have caused great confusion and served little-to-no purpose. Secondly, and more importantly, Tuesday night’s vote was unprecedented for Mattituck-Cutchogue given the high number and variety of write-ins. While Mr. Smith enjoyed a large margin and was by far the winner, we as a district had questions concerning how to release the write-ins. For example: Do you release the actual sheet you recorded them on or are you permitted to type them and release the typed tally? These questions are best answered after consultation with legal counsel so that the public interest is well served and well protected.

That, Suffolk Times, is why a FOIL request is appropriate. Your assertion that FOIL requests are reserved to keep information out of the public domain is nothing short of inflammatory and meant only to sell newspapers.